ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Jack Reno

(11/30/1935 ~ 11/1/2008)

Jack Reno was a country singer. Born in Bloomfield, Iowa, Reno appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in the 1960s and played with Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton. He recorded seven albums and scored 12 hits on the American country music charts, including Hitchin' a Ride, Repeat After Me" and I Want One. In addition, he was a long-time country music DJ, with stints in Centerville, Iowa, Cincinnati, Ohio, Yankton, South Dakota and Omaha, Nebraska.

In 1951, at the age of 16, Reno was doing a live radio show over station KCOG (Centerville, Iowa), where he earned a regular disc jockey stint. That show was only 15-minutes each day. Reno got his first break early in his career when his state representative of southeast Iowa, John Kyle from Bloomfield, helped him make the right connections to earn a spot on the staff of radio station WNAX (Yankton, South Dakota).

In 1954, he began making appearances in the area with Billy Dean and the WNAX band. They were singing on the WNAX Missouri Valley Barn Dance Road show that traveled to various cities within its broadcasting signal. Jack Reno also sang on station KVTV in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1955, heappeared on the ABC-TV show Ozark Jubilee that was hosted by Red Foley. In mid-1955 Reno was a guest disc jockey on the "Red River Roundup" show that aired over KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana.

On April 1, 1961, Jack Reno had enlisted in the United States Armed Forces. That brought his musical career to a temporary halt. He returned to civilian life on February 28, 1964. In the late 1960s, he was a program director and disc jockey over radio station WXCL in Peoria, Illinois. He sang a commercial jingle for a local store in the Nashville, Tennessee. Buddy Killen liked his voice and signed him to his new Jab record label. His first single, Repeat After Me (No. 10, 1967) garnered regional attention and eventually it led to his first album (LP), Meet Jack Reno. This bit of a break occurred while he was at WXCL.

Jack Reno's recording successes led to a string of personal appearances that took him far and wide. The Shrine Auditorium in the Los Angeles area had a show sponsored by radio stations KFOX and KBBQ. That show included artists such as Roy Acuff, Minie Pearl, Waylon Jennings, Margie Singleton, Wanda Jackson, Leon Ashley, Henson Cargill and Jack Reno. The backup band was Jimmy Braynt and his ensemble.

A 1967 article by Betty Hofer relates a bit of what it was like for radio station WXCL in Peoria, Illinois to grow its audience playing nothing but country music. It reads as a story hard work and determination by the talented staff on the station at the time. The WXCL Country Gentlemen included not only Jack Reno, but artists such as Jack Barlow and Cal Shrum, who was in various Western movies and held the early morning spot on the station.

In 1971, Jack Reno scored his biggest hits, Hitchin' A Ride that rode to the number 12 spot on the national charts where it remained for 15 weeks. While associated with Dot Records, he recorded We All Go Crazy.

Jack Reno passed away in Florence, Kentucky on November 1, 2008 from brain cancer.